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of the Global Economic Crisis on Local Economy
St Albans Economic Situation
St Albans did not remain unaffected by the global economic crisis. Just like everywhere else in the country, there is a lot of uncertainty and pessimism both among business owners and workforce. But the report on the district's economy in 2011 by the City and District Council reveals that St Albans is holding up much better than many other English cities. This is related to the presence of several major employers in the district but even more so with strong locally based businesses which are the driving force of both regional and national economy.
According to the City and District Council report, most of the district's residents are employed in financial, seo & marketing, business, research, development, retail and educational sectors, while the tourism industry has a major significance for St Albans economy as well. More than 60 percent of the population is employed in professional and managerial occupations while more than one half of residents commute to work mainly in London which is about 22 miles (35 kilometres) from St Albans.
The proximity to London and the University of Hertfordshire as well as an excellent infrastructure made the district one of the prime business locations in the county of Hertfordshire. Several larger firms have their seats in St Albans including AECOM, Premier Foods, Aon Hewitt, Rothamsted Research, NFT Distribution, etc., however, more than 70% of businesses have less than 5 employees which clearly reveals the strength of the local economy.
Despite the fact that St Albans economy was hit by the economic crisis as well, the City and District Council report shows encouraging results. St Albans has the 3rd highest rate of new businesses in the county which means that the entrepreneur spirit and business initiative are on a relatively high level. Although not all newly created businesses will achieve success, the fact alone that new businesses are starting up in these uncertain times is a good news as it shows that the people are taking action which is crucial to get through the economic crisis.
Another major advantage of St Albans over other cities is also the fact that it has a highly skilled workforce, while over 65 percent of its residents have professional, managerial and senior jobs. For a comparison, slightly more than 45 percent of people are employed in professional, managerial and senior occupations on a national and about 53 percent on a county level. The majority of highly skilled residents work outside St Albans and earn more than those who work in the district, however, highly skilled workforce makes the district a highly attractive business location. Nearly one half of adults in St Albans have a NVQ L4 Qualification or above.
How well St Albans is doing also reveals low unemployment rate in comparison to that on the county and national level. With 4.8 percent unemployment rate, the district has 1 percent lower unemployment rate than the county of Hertfordshire and as much as 3.3 percent lower than England in the same period (September 2011).


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Apple has finally announced an event on March 25 at the Steve Jobs theater in Cupertino, California and has also put an official tagline which says â€˜â€™Itâ€™s show timeâ€™â€™. The company is expected to launch something big and if sources are to be believed Apple may launch a television and video service.
Some reports also reveals that the company is planning to introduce a streaming television service which will include subscription TV service.
This subscription is expected to be based on the layout of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Apple is also said to be in talks with HBO (which is a part of AT&T owned WarnerMedia to collaborate for the serives.
Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies said, â€˜â€™While there is a chance Apple will update its iPads or Apple TV devices later this month, the event is likely to be Apple's first major media event in which hardware is not the primary focusâ€™â€™.
"I don't look at that as saying Apple has given up on the (Apple smart speaker)Â HomePodÂ or theÂ Apple TVÂ - those will be the products where Apple Music or an Apple movie experience work the bestâ€™â€™, he added.
Another big thing which is in focus is Apple News where users can and get access to the major publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post and more.
It means it would be just like Netflix and Amazon Prime but in journalism context.
Other important announcement which are likely to be made in the event may include AIrPods 2, AirPower and iPad 5th generation.
Apple has witnessed first-ever dip in its iPhone sales during the holiday shopping period which is being considered as the major factor in the shift of companyâ€™s focus from hardware sales to television services.
Here's a gif of the animation pic.twitter.com/YD3QZLi9Kfâ€” Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) March 11, 2019
Apple event March 25 pic.twitter.com/BkaJyXCkYSâ€” John Paczkowski (@JohnPaczkowski) March 11, 2019

domain: news


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back to News Items
Liquor Franchise Bid goes to Pharmasave
Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority made an announcement this week - as of July 28th Pharmasave will be the authorized liquor franchise. Their hours of operation for liquor sales will be Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 6:00 pm and Saturday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. For more information on products and services you can call Pharmasave at 306.743.2333. You can also connect with them on Facebook - they will be posting information about their new expansion soon!


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Have you ever wanted to splurge on a last minute limo service and ended up disappointed when all local limo rentals were reserved and unavailable? Well, you may be in luck. A new service, called Blacklane, seeks to satisfy limo clients like you while working with professional limo services like us to provide quick and seamless reservation and transportation opportunities.
It’s essentially Uber and Lyft for limos and local town car services, and it can help reduce excess capacity among limo rentals and black car services across the board.
“We’re just trying to flip this equation around by leveraging technology,” co-founder and CEO of Blacklane, Dr. Jens Wohltorf, told PYMNTS in a recent interview.
There are approximately 7,000 stretch SUVs and 8,000 non-stretch SUVs licensed for limousine and charter services in the United States. According to Dr. Wohltorf, many limo services’ vehicles often go unreserved, losing the companies money. Dr. Wohltorf says that Blacklane’s digitally optimized platform is designed to help smaller companies expand their areas of service and bring them more success.
In the United States, stretch limousines are the second most requested vehicle type for business clients, so it should come as no surprise that Blacklane typically provides rides that are longer and business-oriented. Approximately 50% of limousine service is provided for business and corporate customers during the week, making this a huge opportunity for business travelers and limo rental companies alike.
Unlike Uber and other rideshare companies, Blacklane is often used numerous times within the span of one international business trip: once you arrive at your destination airport in a different country, Blacklane will dispatch a driver to drive you to your final destination.
“So, for every round-trip flight, you can envision a circle where Blacklane can be utilized four times,” Dr. Wohltorf said.
However, Blacklane is has very high quality standards when it comes to working with professional and reputable limo drivers and companies.
Ultimately, Blacklane hopes for geographical expansion in the future, but Dr. Wohltorf feels confident in the company’s current position.
“I always feel we haven’t even started yet,” Dr. Wohltorf said. “Instead of now looking to other industries and distracting us from our focus, I think it’s smarter to stick to what we do and continue to make it better.”


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* Q1 rev drops 5 pct to $144.3 mln
* Sees Q2 revenue of $140-$145 mln
* Sees Q2 loss/shr of $0.12-$0.07 (Follows alerts)
May 4 (Reuters) - Mobile modem maker Sierra Wireless Inc posted a wider quarterly loss, hurt by an 18-percent drop in revenue from its machine-to-machine segment, and said it expects second-quarter revenue to remain relatively flat sequentially.
The company said it expects the Japanese earthquake to hurt its second-quarter revenue by about $2 million and forecast a loss of $0.12-$0.07 a share for the quarter. It expects revenue of $140-$145 million.
For the January-March quarter, Sierra which makes AirCard brand modems, posted a net loss of $7.8 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $7.5 million, or 24 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue fell 5 percent to $144.3 million. Machine-to-machine revenue fell 18 percent to $72.7 million.
Shares of the Vancouver-based company closed at C$10.55 Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Amruta Sabnis in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)


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Though the price of bitcoin has somewhat moved within the last days, we are still on the grey area where most of the movement seems to be going sideways. Some kind of a break is sure to be imminent – says this writer after writing almost the same sentence for three weeks straight.
So instead of prophecies we are concentrating on real, actual things that have happened in blockchain. For an example the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are on the rise, which can be seen from the growing demand for workforce. A new report straight up tells that if you want money and an almost certain job, then you should learn to code blockchain applications.
We are also looking onto the new firmware for Antminer, which allows the use of the controversial AsicBoost technology. Will this be the end of Bitcoin? No, it won’t, and the only reason I wrote that last sentence was click-bait.
On other news we are talking about regulation. Though legal phenomena dealing with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are current topics of discussion, more and more institutions are seeing these in a new perspective. Perhaps we don’t need that much new legislation, for we already have many tried and tested means of regulation.
Blockchain Workers Are on High Demand
If you want to get an almost sure job with a good salary, you should consider studying blockchain and cryptocurrencies. A new report by a Californian job-hunting firm Glassdoor states that the amount of job openings connected to blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has soared since last year.
In August of 2018 there were around 1.775 job openings in the blockchain field. This is a 300 increase compared to the same period last year. Most of the openings are on the technical side: almost 20% of the job openings have something to do with development of blockchain or blockchain-based applications.
The report also demonstrates that Bitcoin and blockchain businesses offer good salaries when compared to the average. According to Glassdoor the median salary of blockchain-related job openings is $84,884 per year. This is almost 62% higher than the median US salary, which is $52,461 per year.
The report shows that Bitcoin and blockchain are booming and growing enterprises with a high demand for skilled workforce. If you are thinking of a change in vocation, you could try blockchain.
Blockchain promises lucrative careers for those who want to learn the expertise.
Bitmain Releases Controversial AsicBoost Firmware
One of the biggest mining companies, Bitmain, has released the firmware which allows their popular Antminer S9 to use the controversial AsicBoost technology. Bitmain was originally against releasing the firmware “due to uncertainty surrounding the use of AsicBoost”, but they have since then reversed their decision.
AsicBoost first gained notoriety in 2017, when the debate over Segregated Witness update and Bitcoin scaling were in full heat. AsicBoost allows the miner to take certain mathematical shortcuts, which allow them to find valid blocks faster than ordinarily. On the other hand AsicBoost is not compatible with all of Bitcoin infrastructure and it has been used to mine empty blocks, thus harming the whole of network for the benefit of few miners.
The new firmware allows miners to use the so-called “overt AsicBoost”, which means that everyone can recognize the miners and blocks which implement AsicBoost. Previously Bitmain has been accused of using “covert AsicBoost”, which makes the implementation of shortcuts almost unnoticeable. After SegWit update the use of covert AsicBoost has become far harder.
Bitmain’s decision has already raised concerns, since AsicBoost, even in its overt state, could still be problematic for Bitcoin network without offering actual benefits for the user base as whole.
Bitmain’s mining equipments are among the most popular on the entire cryptocurrency space.
ESMA Doesn’t Want New Bitcoin Laws
The Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group which operates under the European Securities and Markets Authority has released a new report according to which ESMA is recommending the European politicians and legislators to consider using existing legislation for cryptocurrencies instead of implementing new laws.
According to the report most crypto assets are of the sort that they could be covered under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which regulate unfair business practices. The directive mostly affects the relationship between companies and customers, giving customers protection against malpractice and illegit businesses.
Though the report mentions that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not currently covered by European Union’s directives, in practice the laws could be used to regulate bitcoin businesses also. According to ESMA this thing could be changed by simply beginning to interpret the legislation differently.
By using the existing legislation where ever it is possible, legislators could ease their own legislative burdens noticeably and give the bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses the same status as other businesses.
ESMA thinks that the current European legislation could be used to regulate cryptocurrency and blockchain field.
First Self-Regulatory Institution for Cryptospace
Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency, has approved a Japanese association of cryptocurrency companies to act as a self-regulatory body for the industry. The new semi-official status gives the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association power to monitor the operations of Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges.
Self-regulation has been seen as a possible way to solve the problems with Bitcoin and blockchain regulation. Formal legislation is usually rather slow and draconic. For a fast developing field such as blockchain industry, this slowness of formal legislation can cause several problems, as the legislators and politicians are simply unable to follow the pace of technological development.
With self-regulation the companies and institutions in the field of blockchain can draft their own codes of conduct and take their own actions against violations. As the codes of conduct and self-regulation don’t demand parliamentary actions, this kind of regulation can be far more dynamic than regular form of legislation.
Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association is the first formally recognized self-regulatory institution in the Bitcoin space, but there are several similar projects across the globe. For an example the Finnish Bitcoin and cryptocurrency association Konsensus has been investigating the possibilities of self-regulation.
Though regulation is usually seen as the monopoly of politicians, in reality many businesses are successfully using self-regulation and it might work with Bitcoin as well.
Tether Burns Millions of Stablecoins to Ensure Stability
So-called “stablecoins” – that is, cryptocurrencies which are pegged to fiat currencies like dollar or euro – have been all the rage in past few weeks. Cryptocurrencies have been criticized of being unstable, which has led to the growing demand for stability. These stablecoins are offered to be the answer to that.
One of the most famous of these stablecoins is Tether. One Tether (USDT) is meant to always be worth one U.S. dollar. But there seems to be a problem with this idea, which has lead the Tether company to resort to traditional means to control monetary supply, usually employed by governments and central banks.
Tether has redeemed, or bought back, a “significant amount” of their tokens. Tether also revealed that they are going to destroy 500 million Tether tokens from their vaults. This would mean the destruction of over 50% of the current token supply.
Tether’s actions have been attributed to the company’s promise to keep USDT’s value the same as dollar’s. Tether’s monetary policies have even led to accusations that Tether as a company is unable to back their tokens up. In free markets it is almost impossible to guarantee the worth of something without some sort of monetary or economic manipulation.
Though there is real demand for stablecoins, it seems that at least for now the options on the markets have serious problems, which could make using them more risky than cryptocurrencies with floating value.
There’s a real demand for stablecoins, but for now it is unsure whether all of the stablecoin providers themselves are stable enough.
An Altcoin for Gaming Gains Huge Win
Gaming is one of the fields where cryptocurrency and blockchain can be revolutionary. With blockchain it is possible to create virtual items, that are actually ownable by the players. Additionally cryptocurrencies are far more reliable form of virtual currency than the tokens used usually in gaming industry.
A major gaming platform Xsolla has adopted the blockchain payment method and cryptocurrency MobileGO to its services. This is the first time ever an altcoin has been adopted by a major gaming platform. In practice this gives altcoin users the ability to buy more than 500 games and in-game stuff with cryptocurrency.
“Owners of MGO will soon be able to engage in peer-to-peer match play and organize decentralized gaming tournaments in a way never before possible. MGO is essentially the Bitcoin of the gaming industry, the most trusted cryptocurrency that Xsolla is making available to more than half a billion gamers today,” Xsolla’s CEO, Aleksandr Agapitov told in a press release.
This is good news for developers, players and cryptocurrency users in general. If Xsolla’s ambitious plans for decentralized tournaments and alike come to fruition, there might be a bright future for MobileGO.
With Xsolla’s adaptation, many classic and new games are available for altcoins.


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Broadband growth highlighted Comcast’s Q3 earnings, as the operator added 320,000 new Internet subscribers and saw revenues from its Internet business climb more than 10%.
The cable operator lost 48,000 video subscribers, better than last year’s 81,000 dip, and saw its broadband business continue to increase its subscriber lead over pay TV. Comcast now has 22.87 million broadband subscribers compared to 22.26 million pay-TV subscribers.
Broadband also was hailed for leading the company’s cable business growth. Although pay-TV provided the most revenue, at $5.35 billion compared to broadband’s $3.13 billion, broadband revenue growth was 3X that of pay-TV, 10.2% to 3.3%.
During a conference call, Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said broadband was a key to the segment’s “best third quarter in nine years,” and said new products, like Internet Plus and other broadband offerings were doing well with Millennials and other audience groups that Comcast has had a difficult time attracting and hanging on to.
The company also said it has aggressively been rolling out its new X1 platform, saying about 60% of connects in the quarter – about 40,000 per day -- were through the new box. About 20% of its video subscribers have the new box. Roberts told analysts the company was fully invested in the platform and expects it to continue to build momentum.
Roberts provided few details about its Cloud TV platform that it’s currently trialing in one market, but said its newly launched Watchables OTT product has been well-received.
The product mix, he said, is helping Comcast by delivering “a better quality customer and holding on to them longer.”
Currently, only 70% of Comcast customers have a high-speed Internet connection, something the company sees as an opportunity for the future.
Roberts said it would roll out DOCSIS 3.1 in 2016, allowing Comcast to “increase the speed and smartness “ of the Internet for Comcast’s customers.
By the numbers:
- Comcast reported earnings per share of 80 cents, in-line with analyst estimates; profits were dow 19.2% Y/Y, again, in line with estimates.
- It reported revenue of $18.67 billion, an 11.2% increase over 3Q2014 that was $650 million more than Wall Street expected.
- Cable Communications revenue was $11.74 billion, with video, $5.35 billion (up 3.3%); Broadband was $3.13 billion (up 10.2%); voice was $900 million (down 1.4%) and business services was $1.2B (up 19.5%). Advertising was $593M (down 0.2%) and other revenues totalled $562M (up 11.8%).
- At NBCUniversal, revenues of $7.15 billion (up 20.8%). By segment: Cable networks, $2.4 billion (up 7%); broadcast television, $1.97 billion (up 11.3%); filmed entertainment, $1.95 billion (up 64%); theme parks, $896 million (up 14.1%).
- Operating cash flow was up 8% from a year ago.
- Comcast said only 8.4 million customers subscriber to a single product, with 9.1 million double –play subs and nearly 10 million triple-play customers.
- Comcast said it now has 11.7 million WiFi hotspots across its footprint, more than double what it was a year ago.
- Programing costs were up 8%.
Follow me on Twitter @JimONeillMedia and on LinkedIn


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Deal News says November certainly brings great deals, such as big price cuts on TV's, other gadgets, and kitchen appliances around Thanksgiving and the days following.
Deal News says November, especially around Black Friday, is a great time to buy:
-HDTV's: Thursday night and Friday morning after Thanksgiving will bring some of the lowest prices of the year.
-Tablets: Stores either slash prices on tablets, or hand out store gift cards in the case of iPads.
-Kitchen Gadgets: Black Friday is the best day of the year to buy toasters, hand mixers, and other kitchen gadgets. Macy's, Sears, JC Penney, Kohl's and other stores typically offer these items for $9, which is often half retail price. They are essentially loss leaders for the store, just to get you in the door.
-Candy: The first 2 weeks of November bring the lowest candy prices of the year, as stores offer leftover Halloween candy for 50%, even 90% off in some cases. Hey, who cares if it looks like a pumpkin or ghost?
What to Wait On
But Deal News says some things are cheaper in December, if you can wait a couple of weeks.
It says November is not yet the best time to buy:
-Toys: Despite all the Black Friday hype, the best time to buy toys is two weeks before Christmas, according to Deal News. It says the big price cuts take place after stores see what did not sell well the weekend of Black Friday.
-Apple's iPad 2: This second generation iPad is still on sale for $399, but Deal News says it is no bargain at that price. It says the iPad 2 is essentially a dinosaur among tablets. It suggests looking for closeout deals on the soon to be discontinued iPad 4, that has the latest camera and Retina display.
-Winter Clothing: Deal News says you will find good markdowns on Black Friday. But if you miss Black Friday (or just don't want to deal with the crowds), you should wait until the week before Christmas, when stores start slashing prices on unsold sweaters, scarves, hats, and gloves. And the best prices on winter clothing are after Christmas.


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Stun, the entertainment industry content studio, ad agency and commercial production company, has just set up shop in a new, custom-designed, 22,000-square-foot space on two floors on Wilshire Boulevard near San Vicente. It’s the latest step in the expansion of one of Hollywood’s busiest marketing houses, which also recently acquired its first soundstage, invested in a new brand-strategy firm, and bolstered its social media content team.
The shop run by principals and co-founders Mark Feldstein and Brad Roth now has more than 100 employees. It had been located at the SAG/AFTRA building at 5757 Wilshire Blvd. The new space at 6420 Wilshire Blvd. will also house the Los Angeles offices of Blackbird, a brand strategy and business innovation firm headed by former Viacom marketing boss Ross Martin, in which Stun has made a significant investment.
Stun, founded in 2000, is behind campaigns including Conan O’Brien’s return to late-night with his TBS series Conan, the Dove + Men Care 2014 Super Bowl commercial, the web series Presidential Clippings starring Barack Obama and Mitt Romney impersonators chatting as they get haircuts sitting side-by-side (that won a Webby Award), and the Curb Your Enthusiasm promotion for the TV Guide Channel starring Larry David. Most recently, Stun ran Fandango’s campaign featuring comic spokesman “Miles Mouvay” (played by Kenan Thompson), created the 4D experience at Comic-Con last year for the TBS comedy People of Earth, and shot and produced the SAG Awards campaign for TNT and TBS starring host Kristen Bell who appears to be auditioning for the event.
Its client list includes NBC, TBS, TNT, FX, Bravo, ABC, Hulu, Warner Bros and Netflix as well as the likes of Virgin America, BMW, Mountain Dew, Mattel and more.
New live action and key art productions will be shot on Stun’s new 5000-square-foot soundstage in Culver City adjacent to Sony Pictures Studios. Stun will also produce its own, original digital online series from the new studio; its content is repped by CAA.
“Our new headquarters truly feels like an extension of the Stun brand – it’s a uniquely creative space commensurate with the level of work our talented team produces every day,” Feldstein and Roth said. ” It really is a great reward to our amazing staff, who have all worked so hard to get us here.”
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Asus and Toshiba “most reliable” laptop brands
Study carried out by warranty provider reveals chasm in vendor failure rates
Asus and Toshiba laptops have been labelled the "most reliable" on the market based on a survey of more than 30,000 users that have bought new mobile PCs during the past three years. HP finished up bottom of the study, which ranked nine different PC brands in total.
SquareTrade, a third party warranty provider that carried out the analysis by examining failure rate data from its customers, said just 16% of Asus and Toshiba laptops malfunctioned over a three-year period.
Apple came fourth in the study, just behind Sony, while Dell and Lenovo finished in the middle with failure rates of 18% and 21% respectively.
US-based SquareTrade claimed HP laptops showed the highest malfunction rate, at 26%, but said Acer and Gateway were "nearly as unreliable" with failure rates that exceeded the industry average.
According to the data, more than one in three laptops are likely to encounter faults within three years of purchase, with two-thirds of this figure linked to hardware deficiencies and the remainder the result of accidental damage.
Laptops typically experience higher failure rates than most consumer electronics products, which SquareTrade attributes to the sophisticated components they contain.
"Keyboards, pointer devices, media drives and hard drives are all mechanical components that increasingly wear out when subjected to heavy use, while motherboard circuitry, memory and wireless devices are sensitive to heat and environmental factors," stated the company.
"Given that the typical laptop endures more use and abuse than nearly any other consumer electronic device (with the possible exception of cell phones), it is not surprising to see such high failure rates," it added.
The study also explored the reliability of netbooks, concluding that such devices experience 20% higher failure rates from hardware problems than more expensive laptops.


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Demand for Alberta beef remains strong, both domestically and internationally. Jason Wood, provincial livestock market analyst with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AF), breaks down the numbers from the recently released Agriculture Facts 2018.
Estimated Alberta beef production was 732,051 tonnes in 2017, up five per cent from 2016. “Of that,” says Wood,
“Albertans consumed 16 per cent or 117,128 tonnes. Canadians – outside of Alberta – consumed 51.3 per cent, or 375,542 tonnes. Alberta exported 24.3 per cent, or 177,888 tonnes to the U.S., while 8.4 per cent, or 61,492 tonnes, was exported to other countries.”
The domestic demand for beef is strong in Canada. Explains Wood,
“Comparing changes in beef consumption and price shows that consumption decreased about 8.4 per cent between 2013 and 2017 while the indexed price of beef rose 19.5 per cent during that same period. As well, average per capita beef consumption was 25.9 kilograms in 2017, up marginally from the previous year.”
Wood adds that the average of various retail beef product prices, as reported to Statistics Canada, shows that prices have remained relatively flat, averaging $19.30 per kg in the first five months of 2018.
“Based on this average, retail beef prices are down five per cent from highs in 2016 but remain eight per cent higher than the five-year average.”
“By comparison, an average of various retail pork and chicken products shows that prices have shown more stability than beef,” says Wood. “The average retail pork price for 2018 is $12.77 per kg, on par with 2017. That is down three per cent from the high in 2016 and five per cent higher than the five-year average.”
The average retail chicken price in 2018 is $7.40 per kg, up two per cent from 2017, but down 1.6 per cent from 2016 and 1.6 per cent above the five-year average.
“While domestic prices have fluctuated, they have shown more stability compared to global price indices for red meats and poultry,” notes Wood.
For more information about beef production numbers, contact Jason Wood at 780-422-3122.


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Asure Software (Nasdaq:ASUR), a leading provider of workplace management software solutions, today announced that it has opened two new international offices in Dubai and Singapore to serve the Middle East and Asia Pacific markets, respectively. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas; its office in Staines, England (southwest of London) serves the European market and is driving global expansion into new markets. Nigel Clarke, Asure Vice President and General Manager, EMEA and APAC, oversees the new locations and the UK office.
Singapore and India plan to partner and share knowledge on how to build successful new cities using technology and data, following a recent visit by Singapore’s foreign minister. India’s Budget has just committed to spend US$1.2bn on building 100 new smart cities across the country . The partnership will focus on water and port management, and infrastructure development, K Shanmugam, Singapore’s foreign minister, has told India’s regional press.
Singtel-owned Optus has signed a deal with global customer service desk 7, which will provide Optus customers live support, seven days a week, via a click-to-chat app. Optus uses the 7 Assist support chat platform for laptops and desktop PCs. This service, according to 7, utilises “big data analytics” to predict a customer’s issue and provide “real-time decision support making abilities”.
SINGAPORE: With growing internet connectivity, there is increasing demand for data centres which house hardware servers to support networks and databases. Industry observers say demand in Singapore is also driven by its status as a regional hub. Keppel T&T already owns two data centres in Singapore and it is building a third. It says growth in internet and mobile usage, as well as cloud computing, is driving demand for data centre space.
SINGAPORE: The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency of the Republic of Korea (NIPA) to support the expansion of Korean tech startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into the South-East Asian market. In a statement on Monday (July 14), IDA said the MoU was signed last Friday, after South Korea picked Singapore as its South-east Asian hub to site IT Cooperation Centre.
When Xiaomi first came to Singapore to sell its flagship phone, the Mi3, every single phone from the first batch was snapped up in two minutes flat. Today, Xiaomi went one better with the inaugural launch of the Redmi Note. All 5,000 units of the 5.5-inch screened ‘phablet’ were sold out in an astonishing 42 seconds. On the Xiaomi Singapore Facebook page, a representative was quick to note that their ‘sold out timing’ refers to the time when all inventory is cleared, and is not indicative of orders placed.
SINGAPORE: Orbiting in space, some 650 km above Earth, is Singapore’s first nano-satellite. Named VELOX-I, it was launched on Monday (June 30), in what is touted as a step forward for the country’s aerospace industry. Designed and built by students and researchers from Nanyang Technological University’s Satellite Research Centre, the satellite was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, on a space rocket owned by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — MediaTek Inc. (聯發科), one of Taiwan’s leading integrated circuit designers, said Wednesday that it is planning to expand its research and development in Singapore and set up an innovation center in the city state. MediaTek said it is committed to spending S$250 million (US$200 million) over the next six years to expand its R&D operations there. The IC designer added that the center will focus on development of applications to explore business opportunities in the consumer, medical and Internet of Things areas.
SINGAPORE: 1-Net Singapore is launching a new centre to meet growing demand for data hosting and other data-management services, to be ready by the last quarter of 2015. The new data centre, 1-Net North, will be Singapore’s first Tier III data centre certified by the Uptime Institute, a research organisation and consultancy focused on improving data-centre performance and efficiency. A Tier III data centre allows for any planned maintenance activity to take place without disrupting operations of hardware located in the centre.
BBS Group and EnVerv, Inc. announced today their collaboration on a range of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) products. The Metator Smart Meter family covers applications for residential, commercial and industrial AMI metering in which EnVerv’s EV8010 Power-Line Communications (PLC) modem will be employed as the communication platform. “We selected EnVerv as our AMI technology solution due to the superior performance of EnVerv’s modems under challenging network conditions and the fact that EnVerv offered the highest density and the lowest bill of material for its external circuitry”, said Behrouz Gholamrezaey, Chairman and CEO at the BBS Group.
Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act goes live today: organisations must now get the consent of individuals when their data is collected. Although public agencies are exempted from the Act, the government has told FutureGov that it has introduced its own set of rules which are based on the same principles as the new law. From 2 July 2014 “organisations will have to notify individuals of the purposes for which their personal data is being collected, used or disclosed, and obtain their consent to do so”, said a statement by the Personal Data Protection Commission.
SINGAPORE: Taiwan semiconductor firm MediaTek on Tuesday (July 1) unveiled plans to invest another S$250 million in Singapore by 2020 in a sign of continued confidence in the city-state’s electronics industry. Economic Development Board (EDB) Chairman Leo Yip said MediaTek’s expansion – along with investments announced by firms such as Realtek and International Rectifier earlier this year – showed that Singapore’s semiconductor industry remained globally competitive.
Big data analytics innovator Mu Sigma, based in Chicago and Bangalore, has acquired the Singapore-based social media analytics firm Webfluenz. Mu Sigma, one of the most successful Indian tech startups, with a billion-dollar valuation, counts more than a quarter of Fortune 500 companies among its customers. Its USP is to conflate data from multiple sources – people and machines, processes and platforms – to help its clients make intelligent decisions in critical areas like risk, supply chain, and marketing. Mu Sigma employs over 3,000 decision scientists with experience across 10 verticals.
MOUNTAIN VIEW — Gigya, the Connected Consumer Management Suite, today announced its overseas growth in Australia, Asia and Latin America through the expansion of sales teams based out of Melbourne, Singapore, as well as a dedicated headquarters team focused on México, Brazil and South America. The company’s global expansion follows a year of torrid growth for the company, which processed more than 800 million logins in 2013 through its Registration-as-a-Service and Social Login products. Currently powering logins and registration in over 46 different countries, Gigya already has a large international footprint with customers such as Tommy Hilfiger, The Independent, The Globe and Mail, KLM, L’Occitane, Next Media, Japan Airlines and Canon.
Direct insurance business DirectAsia.com launched in Singapore in 2010, aiming to disrupt traditional Asian insurance models, bypass agents, and deal direct with the customer. After the successful launch, it expanded into Hong Kong in 2012, and Thailand the following year. The acquisition by specialist insurer, Hiscox, at the end of Q1 2014, signalled the start of a new chapter in DirectAsia.com’s development.
TAIPEI — Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc. is scheduled to open its official online store in Singapore on July 7 as the company’s first step in expanding its online sales network of the low-cost ZenFone smartphone into Southeast Asian markets. Further, the PC vendor will open its e-commerce website in Hong Kong in late August or early September, said Michael Huang, general manager of the Taiwan branch of Singapore-based e-commerce group Uitox Corp., which teamed up with Asustek in April this year to sell ZenFone models online in Taiwan.
SINGAPORE: The average Internet connection speed for Singapore during the first quarter of 2014 hit 8.4 megabits per second (Mbps), representing a 6.1 per cent jump month-on-month, according to the latest figures by Akamai Technologies. According to its State of the Internet report for the first quarter of 2014, which was released on Friday (June 27), Singapore was ranked fifth in the Asia-Pacific region based on its 8.4 Mbps average connection speed. It is behind South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong,and Taiwan, which were ranked first to fourth in that order, it added.
SINGAPORE: There are plenty of assumptions that would need to fall MyRepublic’s way, as well as a helping hand from local regulator Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), before the fiber broadband provider can realise its goal of becoming the fourth telecom operator in Singapore. In an interview with Channel NewsAsia on Thursday (June 26), MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues acknowledged that the road to become the new telco in an already-saturated market is fraught with obstacles. These range from regulatory constraints, to initial cost outlay, and likely resistance from the three incumbents – SingTel, StarHub and M1 – “all along the way”.
Smartphone owners in Singapore subscribe to either SingTel, StarHub, or M1, the country’s three major telcos. Now, MyRepublic has declared interest to be the fourth player. Its key attraction? A 4G mobile plan with “unlimited” data, which is practically unheard of in Singapore. “Global experience from other markets shows that markets with three mobile operators – typically characterized by a lack of price competition, mediocre quality of service and pent-up innovation – can be made to deliver more value to consumers by the introduction of a fourth mobile operator,” it says in a not-so-subtle dig at the incumbents.
MUMBAI, INDIA/SINGAPORE: Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) today announced its latest investment into the Asia Pacific region. The new ICX cable infrastructure is part of the company’s strategy to provide a direct subsea route to bridge an important gap in the emerging markets corridor, specifically delivering a direct Mumbai-Singapore route to bypass current outage prone terrestrial routes between Mumbai and Chennai.


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What’s new in the realms of paid search and social media? Basis’ Senior Vice President of Paid Search and Social, Amy Rumpler, compiles all the latest news, trends, and resources each month for easy access.
The new feature, called “Advanced Stories,” creates stories for marketers based on images and videos they’ve previously uploaded to the app, layering thematic templates to create eye-catching content. For advertisers struggling to generate a sufficient volume of content, this feature could help fill in gaps using brand-approved messages and visuals.
Yeah, reuse those images!
Consumers are increasingly turning to platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Walmart to start their online shopping searches. Walmart’s recent app and site redesign is one contributing factor, although their overall search ad revenues are still only projected to reach around 7% of the total e-commerce search ad spending marketing this year.
Snapchat’s integration with Rockerbox is poised to show advertisers exactly how many of their conversions and how much of their revenue can be attributed to Snap ads compared to other search, social, display, and traditional channels. It also includes a variety of attribution methodologies, media mix modeling, and messaging resonance throughout a customer’s journey.
This new resource is a “searchable hub” that shows the ads brands are putting into market, which ads are being shown in certain regions, and the last date and format in which those ads ran. The article suggests this “could also function as a handy research element for digital marketers” looking for competitive intel.
I mean, if Zac Efron and The Rock want to know…
On their Q4 earnings call and in subsequent interviews, Pinterest’s CEO made it clear the platform hopes to be a central place for users to get inspired, discover new brands, and shop without leaving the app. Integrating shoppable features is an obvious step in that direction, but, according to eMarketer, Pinterest is also exploring ways to integrate artificial intelligence in a way that’s additive, not addictive.
Search Engine Land explores why AI in search is the real deal, and how the flurry of activity around AI from some of the industry’s top media providers further illustrates its importance. Experts interviewed agreed, “We’re looking at a shift that’s going to define this industry in dollars-and-cents terms for the foreseeable future,” and “It’s as disruptive as social was when first introduced, maybe [more so].”
A Capterra survey revealed that 3 in 4 advertisers using TikTok today plan to increase spending on the platform over the next 12 months, assuming a ban doesn’t take effect in that time (which, most agree, seems unlikely). In fact, 87% of respondents believe TikTok is a viable platform for long-term marketing success. TikTok remains the most downloaded app in the US, and, according to Statista, TikTok users are less likely to be bothered by ads than on other platforms. P.S. Want to learn more, straight from TikTok? Check out our webinar, Seizing the TikTok Advertising Opportunity!
In case you’re not familiar with Lemon8, it’s an app focused on photo-sharing around interests in food, beauty, wellness, and travel, a la Instagram.
No, no, not “Lemonade”…
Available in select Asian countries since 2020, it’s now available for download in the US and uses the same recommendation engine that made TikTok popular. So far, brand involvement is limited to partnering with early platform adopters and influencers, as it’s still focused on growing content—and gaining a following.
Cute, but still not it.
The Verge summarizes some of the alternative social media platforms users are considering turning to as the “next Twitter.” Among the candidates discussed are Mastadon, Post, Substack Notes, T2, and Bluesky.
Want a monthly digest of all the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Basis Scout newsletter!


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Americans may spend 40 minutes a day on Facebook and be unable to imagine navigating without Google Maps, but the public increasingly feels apprehensive about the amount of our personal data held by tech behemoths. Tapping into these worries, politicians have floated various ideas for regulating “tech monopolies.” Most recently for example, Massachusetts Senator and Democratic president candidate Elizabeth Warren unveiled a proposal to “unwind tech mergers that illegally undermine competition,” citing Facebook’s deals for WhatsApp and Instagram, and Google’s purchase of Waze as examples.
But there are many factors that make data monopolies harder to regulate than the traditional kind. And there are many reasons why data-driven companies thrive on size. First, access to vast amounts of data allows platforms to train their products to become more effective – think of Waze, which can give more accurate directions the more data it collects. That obviously gives Waze owner Google a leg up with its Maps app, as well. Second, online platforms like Facebook enjoy network effects – in other words, the platform becomes more valuable the more people use it. Yes, both of these dynamics make it harder for competitors to challenge the platform; but they also allow the platform to offer a better product. Traditional anti-trust remedies, such as breaking up the platform, are less desirable because they may reduce the quality of the customer experience. We need different remedies.
What if instead the user owned the data they generate? This is not an impossible ideal, especially given the advances in data processing. Moreover, any data collected on a customer could be maintained in standardized but decentralized fashion. It is easy to visualize the emergence of trusted information utilities, independent from the firms that use the data. If we own our data, and if there’s a neutral data utility that stores it, then companies like Facebook and Google could still access the data – based on our own individual privacy settings – but would not own it. Users and the utility could decide how to partition individual or aggregated data into various buckets for different purposes (such as one bucket for advertising, one for academic research, and so on) enabling each of us to grant or withdraw our permission.
When each of us controls our data, we will have the option to sell portions of it to firms, or enter into longer-term arrangements where firms would provide their services in return for the use of our data. Some of what is implicit today – free services for data -- would become explicit. The key difference is that the bargain is controlled by the user. Indeed, new technologies like bargaining bots can help routinize data acquisition for a fee when corporations need vast amounts of data to train their artificial-intelligence applications. With data available for a fee, competition will not be shut out.
Users would no longer need to be tied to any specific platform simply because that’s where their data is stored, and that’s what their friends use. Consider mobile payments, where a Venmo user may feel locked in because all her friends use Venmo. The network effects essentially shut out competition from other apps, like Square’s Cash App, Apple Pay Cash, or indeed Facebook or Google’s own payment services. But it doesn’t have to work this way. For instance, in India, electronic retail payments are made over a bridge called the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has been developed by a corporation owned by all the banks. An individual with an account in a bank or platform like Google, WhatsApp, or Alipay, can make payments over the bridge to anyone who has an account in any other bank or company. No entity owns the network, but all benefit from it.
Data monopolies need not be dismantled so long as regulators mandate interoperability between data-driven companies. If an individual wants to leave social network A and go to social network B, she should still have access to all her relationships in network A, and they should have access to her in network B. The networks may not have exactly the same functions and features, but much as phone calls are connected between networks run by different telecommunications companies, social networks should also be interconnected.
The objective in all this is not to eliminate the profitability of innovation, but to preserve competition, which is central to the prospect of continuing innovation and customer service. By shifting ownership of user data back to the users themselves, as well as by requiring networks be interoperable, market power will be rebalanced. As the temptation to build data monopolies is reduced, corporations and platforms will have to compete harder on the products and services they provide. This is as it should be.
Raghuram Rajan is the author of The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State leave the Community Behind.


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Ethereum (ETH) co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin is predicting a clean transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism for the main good contract platform.
In a brand new interview with Bloomberg TV, Lubin says that Ethereum’s long-awaited merge received’t trigger disruptions for customers and builders of the second greatest blockchain by market cap.
“We assume it’s going to be most likely nothing. And ‘probably nothing’ is a playful phrase in our ecosystem that signifies a bit sarcastically that [the merge] will likely be enormously impactful however it would even be very doubtless nothing in the sense that there isn’t any disruption that’s going to be skilled by finish customers.
Tright here’s just about no disruption that’s being skilled by software program builders. It’ll be as clean as in case your iPhone or your laptop computer has upgraded its working system robotically in a single day.”
Lubin goes on to notice that Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake marks the third-biggest milestone in the historical past of cryptocurrency. The solely different occasions that the crypto pioneer sees as greater than the merge are the creation of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“In terms of impact, in the history of our ecosystem, there have been two major events so far. The advent of Bitcoin and the development of Ethereum, a much more programmable and expressive blockchain technology. [The merge] slots in at number three, in my opinion.”
ETH is altering palms for $1,595 at time of writing, buying and selling largely flat over the previous seven days.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl will not be funding recommendation. Investors ought to do their due diligence earlier than making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital belongings. Please be suggested that your transfers and trades are at your personal danger, and any loses chances are you’ll incur are your duty. The Daily Hodl doesn’t suggest the shopping for or promoting of any cryptocurrencies or digital belongings, neither is The Daily Hodl an funding advisor. Please observe that The Daily Hodl participates in internet online affiliate marketing.
Featured Image: Shutterstock/VAlex/monkographic


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(The Center Square) – A new $25.5 million manufacturing facility is coming to Ozark, Ala.
Ecore International, a Pennsylvania-based company, will construct a state-of-the-art production facility and says it will create 84 jobs. The company specializes in transitioning reclaimed materials for use in high-performance floor and surface products.
“Ecore International is a great addition for Alabama’s business community, and its decision to locate an advanced manufacturing and recycling facility in Dale County will have a major economic impact on the rural area,” Ivey said in a release. “This project in Ozark will bring good manufacturing jobs to the citizens there and spark new opportunities throughout the region.”
Ecore International, according to the release, is a privately held company, and is North America’s largest converted or reclaimed rubber.
The company, according to the release, will purchase an existing facility in Ozark, which will be filled with equipment used to reclaim rubber from used truck tires to use in floors and other surfaces. The company plans to pay employees an average of $42,500, the Department of Commerce reports.
“Since its inception, Ecore has transformed over 2 billion pounds of rubber waste into surfaces that make people’s lives better,” Encore Chief Executive Officer Art Dodge said in the release. “All Ecore manufacturing facilities are certified ‘Zero Waste,’ amplifying the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship,” Dodge said.
The company, according to the release, in 2021 converted 100 million pounds of truck tires, which would have been headed to landfills or dumps, into products that were shipped nationally and internationally.
According to the release, the company supplies nursing homes, hotels, fitness centers, recreation centers, retailers, and schools with its products.


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DeNA, the mobile video game maker said that it will launch a driverless bus service in a park in Chiba. The tokyo based company said it has partnered with French startup, FreeMile SA, that manufactures self driving buses.
Hiroshi Nakajima, the CEO of DeNA said that there are not many companies that make completely driverless buses and that was the reason for partnering with the French startup.
DeNA will use the EZ 10 bus, which is an electric vehicle that can accommodate 12 people. Called the Robo Shuttle, the service will begin in August and the company is yet to decide the date. The service will be offered in the Toyosuna Park in Chiba's Makuhari district, which spans 21,000 sq meters.
Exact details are being discussed with the Aeon Shopping Complex, which jointly oversees the park.
Once enough experience is gathered, Nakajima plans to extend the service to Aeon as well, making it easy for visitors to get around the massive complex. He also says that the technology can be utilised in factories to help with movement, in amusement parks, and universities.
In the coming years, DeNA is also planning to introduce driverless taxi services.


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Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced a major overhaul of its portfolio Tuesday, including asset swaps with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and the U.S.'s Eli Lilly and Co.
The deals are worth a total of approximately $25 billion.
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"The transactions mark a transformational moment for Novartis," Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez said in a statement, according to Fox Business
. "Looking ahead, this positions Novartis well for future healthcare industry dynamics."
The drug giants stand to benefit from the deals that aim to help each exit sectors in which they're less efficient and enter sectors where they are. Competition from generic drugs as well as healthcare spending cuts are likely the primary driving factors behind the deals.
"Novartis has agreed an elegant set of transactions that either removes or strengthens its underperforming assets, whilst boosting its oncology portfolio," one Jefferies analyst said, according to Reuters
Specifically, Novartis will buy GSK's oncology products for $14.5 billion plus $1.5 billion pending the outcome of a melanoma trial.
It will sell GSK its vaccines business for $7.1 billion, including royalties. Currently, GSK supplies more than 2 million shots a day. The flu vaccine was not part of the package, and Novartis said it will create a new offer for that business separately.
Lastly, it's selling its animal health business to Eli Lilly for $5.4 billion.
Steve Brozak, president of WBB Securities, told The Associated Press
that all the deals will close simultaneously.
"We’re seeing the logical extension of behavior that has taken place not over just the last few years, but in the past decade," he said.
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© 2016 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Nintendo has dropped the prices of two of its popular handhelds. Unfortunately, it's not the 3DS, so don't get too excited. No, they're dropping the Nintendo DSiXL from $169.99 to $129.99 and the DSi from $149.99 to $99.99. (Which only seems fair because the 3DS is $169.99, so to have the DSiXL cost the same is kind of wrong.)
While Nintendo does seem to be putting the lion's share of its effort behind the 3DS, there are still some regular DS games coming out, and they're not all shovelware. Plus, the existing DS library is frighteningly huge, so it's actually a great starter handheld for a kid who won't know that he's playing the last generation system.


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More than 14,000 people from around the globe attended the 25th annual Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, one of the largest wine and grape trade shows in the world. Creative Design Manager Alex Kidd of Avery Dennison’s Concept Lab was there to take in the trends and promote newly released label materials.
“It was a refreshing opportunity to be immersed in the industry, specifically from a label perspective. The show provided an end-to-end perspective on how our materials and design work with the vine-to-table process. Everyone at the show—from the bottle manufacturers to the growers—is trying to push the industry forward for a new generation of consumers. It’s always interesting to see how Avery Dennison materials play a part in that,” Alex says.
Attendees could purchase everything from crop-protecting birds of prey to specialty vines. They could also browse and learn more about the latest agricultural equipment. Of course, label and packaging designers and manufacturers were also represented, including Avery Dennison.
“Label and packaging materials were a hot topic at the symposium, with much of the talk about creating wine branding that goes beyond the plain white label,” says Alex. “Whether it’s a subtle detail, a heavy tactility, or even a super shiny or sparkly iridescence, visitors were interested in seeing a canvas that truly elevated the brand.”
Visitors to the Avery Dennison booth were the first to experience five new materials from the Avery Dennison wine and spirits portfolio for North America.
The new Sensorial™ collection for North America, featuring Ruby Velvet™ and Black Velvet™ facestocks, plays on the consumer’s senses of touch, sound, and smell.
The new Black™ collection, also for North America, features Laid Epic Black™ and Night Skye™ facestocks. “This collection went over particularly well with converters,” said Alex. “They immediately saw the value of having a black material versus printing black, where the process sometimes requires multiple prints to get the right depth of color.”
The new Luminous™ collection includes a facestock called Snowbound White™, as well as a collection of labeling materials that features sparkle, glitter, and shine—all bound to create elements of surprise and delight.
“Our materials are the canvas for these brands. We brought prototypes to show what’s possible with foil, embossing, and special finishings. The power of materials combined with strong design undeniably elevates a brand to new heights,” says Alex.
Insights from the symposium
While the label goes a long way in helping a bottle stand out from the competition, Alex says there were also can and glass manufacturers who are creating new ways to make their products stop the consumer in their tracks. One wine packaging manufacturer is working with North American wineries to make cans more widely available—a design we recently noted is popular in the European market.
The company has a months-long waiting list because demand is high in the North American market, but few manufacturers offer a solution to this growing trend of smaller wine packaging. Alex says, “Most companies using canned wines are choosing pressure sensitive labeling because of the availability of materials, quality control in such high quantity production, and of course, cost.”
Alex says he was impressed across the show by the “attention to detail and the precision that goes into all aspects of production.” He points to an in-depth conversation he had with a barrel manufacturer where he learned about the aging process. “It takes into account the type of wood and its place of origin, as well as the aging process and all of its intricacies. It was fascinating.” He says, “With sensorial materials like FassonⓇ Cherry Wood, it’s easy to translate the care taken throughout production to the consumer, with a label that tells the story.”
Attendees at the 2019 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium also got a pre-launch sneak peek of M_use, as well as a first-look at the 2019 wine swatchbook, which designer attendees noted “resembles a Pantone® chip book” in its size and portability.


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Jordan Brand Capitalizing On Jeter's Farewell New Jordan Brand Ad Celebrates Jeter's Career Adidas Wins World Cup Brand Battle Yonex Looks To Sign Tennis Player Nick Kyrgios Oklahoma Unveils Alternate Football Uniforms Robredo, Venus Among Wimbledon's Best Dressed Nike Sees Q4 Profit Rise 5% Based On Soccer Nike Unveils Mike Trout Signature Cleat Brands Active Around World Cup Despite Protests Nike Showing Corportate Responsibility Progress
Upcoming Conferences and Events
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NATIONAL WOMEN'S GROUPS CRITICIZE NIKE OVER WORKERS ISSUES
Published October 27, 1997
A coalition of women's groups, which includes NOW and the Ms. Foundation for Women, "has attacked Nike as hypocritical" for running new TV commercials that feature female athletes, while alleging the company pays "its largely female overseas work force poorly," according to Steven Greenhouse of the N.Y. TIMES. In a letter to Nike CEO Phil Knight, the coalition wrote, "While the women who wear Nike shoes in the United States are encouraged to perform their best, the Indonesian, Vietnamese and Chinese women making the shoes often suffer from inadequate wages, corporal punishment, forced overtime and/or sexual harassment." Nike Labor Issues spokesperson Vada Manager said the women's groups "misunderstood Nike's role." In Asia, its factories "pay considerably more than do most factories in those countries." The commercials "show women saying they will be stronger, healthier and more independent if they are allowed to play sports" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/26). USA TODAY's Dottie Enrico reports that the 15 women's organizations will hold a press conference Tuesday "urging" Knight to "increase wages and hire an independent local investigator" at Nike overseas factories (USA TODAY, 10/27).


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| Alibaba.com is the largest B2B marketplace in the world. Source Coconut Oil, Acer , Air Bike, Children Furniture , Cane Sugar, Nissan, Costume, Dell, Wallpaper, Gsm Phone, Transfer Paper, Swimwear, Vending Machine, Faux Fur, Laptop, Milk Powder, MAP, Scooter, Candy, Artificial Flowers, Greeting Card, Photo Album, Hair Dye, Billiard Table, Data Cable, Silk Fabric, Cultured Stone, Slippers, Sports Equipment, Wood Flooring, DVD Case, Audio, Computer Mouse, T Shirt, Granite, Packaging, Tube, Toy and Thong
|Suning steps up efforts against competitors
|An advertising board for Suning Appliance Co Ltd, China's No 2 electrical appliance retailer, on a street in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (newsphoto)|
BEIJING, August 1 -- China's No 2 electrical
appliance retailer Suning Appliance Co Ltd plans to move its headquarters from
Nanjing to Shanghai and expand its regional base in a bid to compete with its
The firm has been under mounting pressure from
competitors since the country's largest electrical appliance retailer GOME
Electrical Appliances Holding merged with No 3 retailer China Paradise
Electronics Retail Ltd (Yolo) last week.
As well as shifting its headquarters, Suning will
establish seven new regional bases in major cities including Beijing, Nanjing
and Chendu in the coming three to five years, according to a company official.
Sun Weimin, president of Suning, said in an interview
yesterday that part of the company's four core departments now based in Nanjing
including management, sales and marketing would be transferred to Shanghai soon.
"Many top marketing and sales staff will move to
Shanghai, which will take the place of Nanjing to monitor Suning's nationwide
business," said Sun.
Along with the relocation, Suning plans to build 100
new chain stores in the country by the end of this year.
It has raised 1.2 billion yuan (US$150 million) on
the stock market and obtained 800 million yuan (US$100 million) in loans from
the China Development Bank.
The changes come on the back of Suning's recent
sluggish stock market performance under pressure from rival GOME's successful
acquisition of Yolo on July 25.
Investors are concerned Suning may lose its market
share as it is dwarfed by GOME, which has 670 China stores more than double
Suning's number. Shares in Suning dropped to 47.05 yuan (US$5.8) yesterday from
50.05 yuan (US$6.2) on July 26, down by 7 per cent.
Its shares closed at 47.05 yuan yesterday, down by 1.98 per cent.


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In the latest announcement regarding Virgin Mobile, Optus promised specially tailored plans for Virgin customers who switched over to Optus. Here’s what some of these plans are and how they compare to what Optus customers are getting.
this story has been updated to include the iPhone 8, iPhone 8+ and Samsung Galaxy S9 plans
At the present time, special plans are being offered to customers looking to bundle their plan with an iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8+, iPhone 7, 7+, iPhone 6s and 6s+, iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy S9+, Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung S8+, Samsung Galaxy A8, Samsung Note8, Oppo R11s, HTC U11, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei P10, Huawei Mate 9 and the Sony XZ Premium.
There are also SIM only plans available.
Optus are clearly trying to entice Virgin customers over, because most plans have better prices or more data for less compared to what is being offered to customers going direct to Optus.
Here are some examples of what’s on offer. Apologies for the quality of some of the screenshots.
This is what the 64GB iPhone X plans look like:
Each of these plans go up by $10 for the 256GB version.
Here’s what similar 64GB plans over at the Optus website look like:
And here is what Virgin customers will be offered for a 64GB Samsung Galaxy S9+ plan:
Again, 256GB plans go up by $10 a month.
And these are the similar 64GB S9+ plans from the Optus website:
This is what the Samsung Galaxy S9 plans look like:
And these are the similar 64GB Samsung Galaxy S9 plans from the Optus website:
This is what the iPhone 8 plans look like:
And these are the similar 64GB iPhone 8 plans from the Optus website:
This is what the iPhone 8+ plans look like:
And these are the similar 64GB iPhone 8+ plans from the Optus website:
Sim Only Plans
When it comes to SIM only plans, these are what customers switching from Virgin can get on a 12-month plan:
And these are the similar plans when you go direct to Optus:
While they added value of these plans vary, they could be enough to entice Virgin customers to go over to Optus. Some definitely offer better deals than what Optus customers are currently getting on similar plans.
After announcing plans last week to phase out Virgin Mobile Australia, Optus have now revealed more details on how this is going to play out for staff and customers.Read more


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Former Walmart Exec Claims Retailer Has Been Inflating E-Commerce Numbers
A new lawsuit from Tri Huynh, a former Walmart business development executive, claims that the retailer is inflating its e-commerce sales numbers in the race to close the gap between itself and its chief rival, Amazon.com. The suit, filed this week in Northern California federal court, alleges that Walmart has been lowering its standards to boost the size of its online catalog; miscategorizing some items listed for sale, which can result in overcharging some merchants who sell through Walmart.com; and failing to process $7 million in returned items. Huynh says that he was terminated from his job in 2017 as retaliation for being a whistleblower by repeatedly bringing his concerns to e-commerce division leaders, and is suing for unspecified damages.
Total Retail's Take: Is this a disgruntled former employee trying to exact some type of revenge against Walmart, or is Huynh telling the truth? That's for the courts to decide, but what's been reported is that Walmart is making serious inroads in growing its digital business. The traditional brick-and-mortar retailer has invested significant resources to grow its e-commerce business, most notably through the acquisition of several digital-native brands, to take market share from Amazon. I don't think there's much doubt that there's been growth in e-commerce sales at Walmart, the extent of that growth is now being called into question.


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It seems gamers were not the only ones shocked by Square-Enix's announcement of a multi-platform Final Fantasy XIII release. Speaking at an E3 roundtable Q&A, President of SCEA Jack Tretton has spoken out against Microsoft, implying that the company has spent most of their money "trying to curry favor with third parties".
Tretton then goes on to contrast this strategy with Sony's, saying that "the decision that we made is that we were going to invest in internal development, the majority of our resources and over half of our employee base all over the world. We've built up our base and that's where we've chosen to spend our dollars."
Soooo....Sony develops great games internally while Microsoft buys them? Ouch.


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Yesterday, John Proser claimed that the regular leak was Apple Tomorrow is 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, September 8, for press release on new products. The processor had As said before The new iPad and Apple Watch models were scheduled to launch in the week of September 7th, so it looks like they are the products we are looking forward to seeing.
BloombergMark Gurman Raise some doubt Rumor has it, however, that any news of tomorrow morning will be an announcement about a virtual media event to unveil the next iPhone and Apple Watch.
With less than twelve hours left until the rumored press release, Prosser is doubling down on its sources that it is “not growing or changing its mind” and that the new iPod Air and Apple Watch models will be launched tomorrow.
Okay, guys. Last tweet of the night. Sources My sources do not change or change their minds. They still tell me that the Apple Watch and iPod Air will be coming out in a press release tomorrow. See you all in the morning to find out! – John Prosser (on John_Prozer) September 8, 2020
Supports his case, Proser As pointed out earlier today Many Apple Watch Series 5 models are currently listed as unavailable in Apple’s online store, with the understanding that Apple is depleting stock of existing models ahead of an upcoming update.
Over the past few weeks we have been seeing Apple Watch Series 5 stock levels, we have seen many of them go out of stock, the number of affected models seems to be increasing, but it is difficult to say whether they are pointing to a point in the upcoming launch tomorrow or maybe next month.
For the past six months Apple has been battling the supply of many products, sometimes affecting not only production but also consumer demand for certain product lines as a result of the global health crisis.
Given the possibility of a personalized media event for the introduction of new hardware and Apple’s signing that new iPhones will be launched as usual “in a few weeks”, we are on the water, and we are not entirely sure how Apple will release many new products. It seems to be on the verge of launching. So stay tuned tomorrow morning and we’ll see if Apple has anything to announce.
Problem solver. Incurable bacon specialist. Falls down a lot. Coffee maven. Communicator.


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Beverages have become more than just a source of refreshment. Consumers also are turning to beverages for functional benefits. Sports drinks as well as energy drinks and shots have become a source to provide a variety of functionalities.“There are quite a number of functional benefits that consumers are looking for with energy drinks and shots besides [an energy] boost,” says Garima Goel Lal, senior analyst at Mintel International, Chicago.
The June 2016 issue of Beverage Industry includes a cover story on Kalil Bottling, as well as articles about premium and specialty teas, the Top 100 Beverage Companies of 2015, and Alacran Tequila. Check it out today!


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The team here at The Panic Room Company is expanding once again this year with the appointment of Mark Oliver as our agent for South Africa.
Coventry-born Mark left the UK with his family for Cape Province in South Africa when he was 12 years-old. He was schooled in the country, completed his national service there and worked for a number of global brand retailers in senior management positions. Mark now divides his time between his homes in Bournemouth and St Helena Bay where he has recently built a beautiful beach-front property.
Commenting on Mark’s appointment, Paul Weldon, managing director of The Panic Room Company, said: “Mark’s extensive background in retail and sales, both here in the UK and in South Africa, combined with his broad knowledge of real estate and construction in South Africa make him the ideal person to have ‘on the ground’ in the country.
“Mark has taken the time to fully understand our objectives and shares our ethics of delivering the very highest quality products and solutions with unrivalled customer service – I’m delighted to welcome him to the business.”
Concludes Mark: “I’m excited by the opportunity afforded me to represent The Panic Room Company in South Africa. There is huge scope to further develop business in the country and maximise our potential amongst our various target markets.”


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Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, has said Ghana’s Tourism sector was leaving no stone unturned in its quest to increase tourism traffic from China to Ghana.
She contended that the first quarter of 2015 had seen the sector making strong presence at leading International Fairs in Europe.
“Ghana recently participated at the FITUR International tourism fair, Vakantiebeurs Tourism Fair in Utrecht, Netherlands, and the world’s leading International Tourism Bourse (ITB) Berlin in Germany,” she added.
In a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency on Monday in Accra, Mrs Ofosu-Adjare said the sector had now refocused its International marketing and promotional drive on the Asian Tourism Market, and was participating in the on-going 11th China Outbound Travel Tourism Market (COTTM) in Beijing, China.
She was convinced the Chinese tourism market represented a significant part of the world’s tourism receipts, and Ghana would have to take a fair share of the market.
She added that China was leading in International Tourisim, with 129 billion dollars in expenditure and hence Ghana had intensified its efforts in attracting a fair share of the Chinese market.
Mrs. Ofosu-Adjare further stated that, as a precursor in attracting a fair share of the Chinese market, Ghana’s embassy in Beijing was in advanced talks with the Chinese government, to establish a Ghana visa centre in Beijing to facilitate visa acquisition for the Chinese outbound travelers.
She said Ghana was poised to sustain this marketing effort in the Asian tourism market.
Mrs Ofosu-Adjare said as part of the ministry’s effort at exposing the creative arts industry practitioners to international trade in goods and services, an invitation was extended to the creative art industry by the Ministry to participate in this year’s COTTM Fair.
She said Ghana’s delegation was made up of directors from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, officials from the Ghana Tourism Authority, Forestry Commission, Ghana Tourist Development Company, Jet Away Travels, Apstar Tours, Joy Industries Limited and Land Tours.
Ghana’s Apstar Tours won an award in the category of product innovation at the China Outbound Tourism Awards.
COTTM is regarded as the industry’s most important platform and remains the only business-to-business event that focuses purely on the burgeoning Chinese outbound market. It was attended by over 5000 Chinese trade buyers from the leading outbound tour operators and travel agents.


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HTC Acknowledges One X WiFi Bug On Tegra 3 Models
There's always some snag with these big flagship devices it seems. The iPhone 4 had antennagate, Verizon's Galaxy Nexus couldn't seem to stay connected and the One X is joining the parade with some serious WiFi issues. Some users have complained of weak WiFi reception and, alarmingly, a rather odd fix. Simply squeezing the device in the right place could drastically improve signal strength indicating the issue may be hardware based.
Google Is Pushing Forward On Its Siri Rival As Voice Assistant Competition Heats Up
Google is said to have accelerated plans to rival Apple and launch a Siri competitor for Android devices, according to the Wall Street Journal, after the Cupertino-based company announced a series of significant updates to its personal assistant service. Apple’s recent WWDC event saw the company add a bunch of new features to Siri, which included an option to ask real-world questions about sports, movies, restaurants and more.
The Next Web
Instagram’s Systrom: Video Is Hard But Cinemagram Is Interesting; Also, Focus On Big Problems
Startups like Viddy and Socialcam are angling to be the Instagram of video — that is, to figure out some simple way of creating, editing and sharing mobile videos, in a way that resonates with users like the photo-sharing service has. But it’s hard, Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom said on stage at Le Web London today, because of the medium. Videos take minutes to load. “Users want a faster experience, they want to produce quickly. [With Instagram] you can take a photo and make it beautiful in seconds.”
4% of People Have Used Their iPhone While Having Sex
Which would you rather give up for a weekend — sex or your iPhone? 15% of respondents to one study said they would choose a romance-free weekend rather than go without their beloved device. A recent survey conducted by Gazelle.com (the company that buys your old iPhone) asked 1,000 people who have used the service to trade-in an old device if they’d rather go without sex or iPhone for a weekend. Yes, 15% of people chose sex.


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Auto manufacturers are currently going through a deplorable phase, as they struggle to control increasing losses in Europe after 11 consecutive months of declining sales. One of the most affected auto manufacturers is General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), which has lost nearly $16 billion in the last 12 years in its European operations.
The issue made it to the headlines when, at the start of September, a Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analyst recommended that GM should sell out its Opel plant. However, GM, under its CEO Dan Akerson, Vice President Stephen Girsky and interim European chief Thomas Sedran, remained committed to Opel.
It will be interesting to see how things shape up, as GM tries to turn around its operations in Europe by introducing newer products, cutting labor costs, and realigning operations. GM aims to benefit from synergies and alliances with other auto manufacturers like Peugeot (OTCPK:PEUGY).
Europe and Auto Manufacturers
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) reported a YoY decline of 8.9% in passenger car registration in August. Even the strongest European economy, Germany, showed a decline of 4.7% YoY. France and Italy showed double-digit declines. Recently, Moody's cut its forecast for the global auto sales growth rate from 4.5% to 2.9% for 2013, given the bleak economic situation in Europe.
Volkswagen (OTCPK:VLKAY), the leading European auto manufacturer, said that some of its competitors are at risk of going bankrupt without the state's assistance. At the Paris Show last week, Peugeot Citroen's CEO remarked that 2015 would not be much different from 2012, signifying that the problems in Europe are not going away any time soon.
To add to the woes, labor unions and the government's stringent laws have not allowed auto manufacturers to adjust their operating capabilities accordingly. That is probably why 30 of the 98 European auto-assembly plants are running below 70% of their capacities. The following table shows the details for August sales for the European region:
Only Volkswagen and Kia witnessed positive growth.
GME and Its Problems
There is no doubt that GM's European operations (GME) have been a drag on the company's overall results. In the most recent quarter, GME reported a loss of $361 million, which was in contrast to GM's overall operating profit of $1.87 billion.
GME is running at a mere 56% operating capacity. GM's CEO has predicted that it will take at least five more years to make profits from GME. The current estimate is that GME will make a loss of $1-$1.4 million this year.
GME contributes 17% to the company's overall revenues. The market share for GM is also on a decline due to tough competition from rivals like VLKAF and Japanese manufacturers like Nissan and Toyota (NYSE:TM). Korean auto manufacturers are also reducing GM's market share.
The following are the market shares of different OEMs in Europe and their respective YoY changes in market shares for the month of August:
Expectations on Opel Unit
The market does not seem to be optimistic about GME. Morgan Stanley believes that Opel will lose another $12.3 billion from 2012 to 2021. Also, it recommended that GM is better off having a 3% market share generating a profit, rather than an 8% market share making a loss.
Exiting the Opel unit will cost GM $7-$13 billion. This includes $3-$7 billion in cash that GM will have to pay in order to sell the business. Also included, is the amount of $1-$2 billion that GM will have to spend to restructure its operations, in order to prove that it is trying to bring operations near the breakeven point. An amount of $3-$4 billion is needed as well to fund pension liabilities.
The Opel unit was nearly sold to auto-part manufacturer Magna International (NYSE:MGA) in 2009. The market compared GM's Opel unit to Daimler's Chrysler unit, when the latter sold the loss-making unit to Cereberus. Metzler Bank's analyst also commented that GM should get rid of the Opel unit, as it lacks export opportunities and European demand is not enough to convert the unit into a profitable one.
Opel's registration fell by 15% YoY in the first eight months of the year, as it underperformed the market, which fell by 6.6%.
GM on GME
Akerson has been selected to inspire a change in the Opel unit. He recently ousted Karl Friedrich, the former chief of the Opel unit, when Karl said that GME was $100 million short of its 2016 savings plan. The revamped team under Sedran is planning to launch newer compact models, reduce cost by forming alliances with suppliers, and optimizing fixed costs. The plan named "Drive Opel 2022" is intended to tap into new markets, according to the interim Opel chief.
GM has also formed an alliance with Peugeot Citroen to save costs in the field of product development, vehicle supply and power train supplies. However, the efforts to deepen the alliance have become slower due to the weak economy. Both companies missed the June 30 deadline on a parts-buying plan. Peugeot, which has also been losing $257 million in cash every month since the last year, believes that the joint purchasing agreement is expected to get the green signal from regulators in November.
Labor unions have played an important part in the restructuring of European operations for auto manufacturers. Earlier last month, GM shortened working hours at its Russelsheim (Opel's biggest plant) and Kaiserslautern plants. It is also considering closing its Bochum plant, which employs around 3,100 workers.
GM is also frustrated by the bulky discounts that other manufacturers have been offering in order to attract new customers. Fiat and Peugeot are giving discounts of up to 30% off the sticker price. In Germany, the average discount was calculated to be 12.1%. Most of the dealers are practicing self-registration, meaning registering vehicles on their own names and then selling them off to the end customer as used vehicles on discounted prices.
GM is pinning its hopes on the newly introduced ADAM small-car and Mokka, which is compact SUV, to attract new customers.
The ACEA has forecasted that sales for this year will be the lowest since 1995. Western European SAAR is expected to be 15.1 million for this year, and is expected to fall to 14.3 million for the next year. Peugeot is also expecting an 8% contraction in demand for this year. In this situation, GM has to carefully analyze whether it has the sufficient ability and resources to turn around the Opel operations, or whether it should get rid of what seems to be its 'Achilles Heel'.
GM is currently trading at a cheap multiple of 6x. Not a single analyst has a sell rating for the stock. However, 4% of the analysts have underweight ratings, primarily because of the company's loss-making European operations. Many investors hope that the recent restructuring plan under Akerson will bring a change in European operations as well.
Let us not forget, a turnaround in the European operations will bring about a massive change in the stock's valuations, and there are chances that the stock might push to near the $53 mark - the breakeven price at which the U.S. Treasury will be willing to sell its shareholding of 26.5%, which will lead to another jump in the stock.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
Business relationship disclosure: The article has been written by Qineqt's Industrials Analyst. Qineqt is not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). Qineqt has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


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The headset would feature its own display rather than relying an iPhone, and it would run a new spin-off from iOS in the vein of watchOS or tvOS, now called rOS internally, for "reality operating system".
"The development timeline is very aggressive and could still change", Bloomberg writer Mark Gurman noted, citing anonymous sources familiar with the project. As of the time of this writing, Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
READ NEXT:DAQRI launches its professional AR smart glasses With the public launch still so distant, the design and functionality of the device are a long way off being confirmed. The tech giant has certainly been ramping up its work in the AR space over the past year. In the meantime, we can expect Apple to further flesh out ARKit as it prepares to make a larger push into the AR/VR industry with a headset of its own.
AR headsets already exist, but they mainly rely on smartphones for their processors and screens. Apple has been invested in AR for the past couple of years, starting with the formation of a team dedicated to AR projects. These apps allow users to peek through the display to see information - such as games or even digital furniture - placed within the real world. Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously explained his interest in AR as a less isolating alternative to VR.
"Put simply, we believe AR is going to change the way we use technology forever", said Cook, during Apple's latest earnings call. The chip could be similar to the integrated system used on the Apple Watch. "rOS" will be based on iOS which is the operating system of Apple's other iDevices. The company is also discussing using its own version of the App Store within the device so users can easily download apps they want to play or use. For launch apps, engineers are said to be already prototyping a range of applications that involves mapping, texting, holding virtual meetings and watching 360-degree videos. In particular, the paper discusses the application of touch panels, voice activation via Siri and control using head movements.
I can't wait to see Apple's AR headset arrive.
This is likely why the company introduced the ARKit when it did.
Robots are the next step in using technology to explore sexuality.


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According to an article out today from Food Navigator USA, plant-based meat ingredient startup Motif Foodworks has laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
The layoffs, which are the first for the company, are part of a broader restructuring that will “maximize ROI for our customers and investors.” According to company CEO Jonathan McIntyre, the slimmed-down company will prioritize those ingredients and finished products where the company is “experiencing strong demand.”
Motif, which has been developing ingredients such as a plant-based heme and technology to give plant-based cheese the same stretch and melting properties of animal-based cheese products, has raised $345 million in funding over the past few years, including a $226 million round 12 months ago. That funding, which came at a time when lots of alternative protein startups had access to lots of cheap capital, was spent on everything from an expansive new headquarters to new headcount as the company looked to become what is essentially an “Intel-inside” provider of future food building blocks for a new generation of alt-protein startups.
Now, however, Motif is facing increasing headwinds in the form of a legal battle and overall sluggishness in parts of the plant-based meat sector. These headwinds come at the same time venture capital’s easy-money era appears to be coming to an end, making it doubly-hard for a company with product development cycles as long as Motif’s. With fresh rounds of funding that would extend the company’s runway now drying up, Motif has no choice but to prioritize revenue-producing product lines such as its consumer-facing brands and ready-for-market ingredient products.
It’s probably too soon to tell if Motif’s problems are endemic to a company that spent relatively freely during a time of plentiful venture capital or if it’s a sign of things to come in a broader industry shakeout. Paleo, another company creating alt-meat building blocks similar to those at Motif, just announced its new product line and is raising a Series A to scale its product line. Other plant-based startups like Tender and Nowadays have been able to raise money in recent months, showing that there is still some appetite among investors for the sector.
Either way, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the company and some of its peers to see if this new era of venture capital austerity forces additional changes to business models to accelerate the road to profitability.


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Nearly six months after Bud Light’s downfall began, the company is still a raging dumpster fire and continues to be a cautionary tale for many corporate executives around the world.
But apparently, despite all the noise, the beer brand didn’t actually learn anything from the massive hit it took for promoting woke extremist political views.
But Bud Light executives have not seemed to have learned anything, and they are bracing for more pain as their continued support for the woke agenda has been publicly exposed.
Everyone should have seen this coming
Since Bud Light made the disastrous decision to go all-in on woke extremism back on April Fool’s Day, the company’s sales have reportedly declined by nearly 30% year-over-year.
As a result, the company has made a big show of pandering to its working-class customer base and firing several known woke extremist employees in an attempt to settle down the blowback they’ve faced.
But based on a new report, it’s all just one big charade.
The UK-based Guardian released a rather lengthy report last week in which the outlet attempted to conduct a complete autopsy of Bud Light’s months-long woke downfall in an attempt to gauge the impact it actually had on the company.
In doing so, The Guardian also spoke with several of the woke extremist organizations Bud Light was allied with in the past – and will be in the future.
And according to those sources, despite all the blowback it’s faced, Bud Light has never stopped using its resources to push woke extremism.
In fact, according to a spokesperson for Phoenix Pride, Bud Light’s sponsorship is one of the primary reasons they’re able to put on events like a festival the group is hosting next month that features “family-friendly drag entertainment.”
“We’re going to be putting on a full weekend of family-friendly drag entertainment, less than three miles from the Arizona capital, where they’re trying to shut down that entire culture,” Phoenix Pride spokesperson Jeremy M Helfgot said. “It’s only because of the support of corporate partners like Bud Light that we can do that.”
Driving the conversation
Based on The Guardian report, it seems as though Bud Light’s involvement may not be stopping at sponsorships that quietly push woke extremism either.
Alyssa Nitchun, the executive director of New York’s LGBTQ+-focused Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, essentially signaled that woke extremists are now taking up the strategy of calling on companies, like Bud Light, to allow them to “drive the conversation” in light of their woke fiasco.
“In light of what happened with Bud Light and other canceled brands, they should trust organizations like ours to drive the conversation,” Nitchun claimed. “You want to support the LGBTQIA+ community? Ask the queer folks working for you what they want and need.”
Put simply, Nitchun wants corporations like Bud Light to hand over all the resources they need to force woke extremism on the populace without providing any oversight whatsoever for how the money is spent.
Quite frankly, while it sounds like a rather outrageous offer on its surface, it may actually be something woke companies like Bud Light consider.
After all, despite all the issues they’ve faced and the lack of any stabilization in light of their efforts to supposedly “fix” the situation, Bud Light has still yet to admit they were wrong and apologize to their working-class customer base, which doesn’t want any political agenda forced on them by corporate overlords.
And with the company still quietly funding woke extremist efforts, who’s to say they wouldn’t just quietly hand over all the money they’ve already been spending on woke extremism to allow the woke left-wing outrage mob to truly “drive the conversation?”
Besides, one former Bud Light employee told The Guardian that one of the primary reasons the company faced such issues during its woke fiasco was due to a “lack of leadership.”
“There was a lot of panic and a lot of rash decision-making,” a former employee said. “We didn’t hear anything from leadership for over a month, and then after a few weeks, someone high up at Anheuser-Busch released a statement that pretty much said nothing.”
If you think for a second Bud Light executives wouldn’t be happy to allow woke extremists to fill that “leadership” void, you haven’t been paying attention.
Woke extremists will stop at nothing to force their agenda on the American people, and companies like Bud Light are still all too happy to help them do it.